National Security Brief: Obama Ordered Cyberattacks On Iran

— The New York Times reports: “From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons.”

— The House approved legislation yesterday to increase health care spending for veterans and provide more money to compensate record numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans claiming service-related disabilities as they return home.

— While the America’s top U.N. diplomat has suggested that the U.S. could work outside the U.N. framework on Syria, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. should not take military action in Syria without authorization by the United Nations.

— Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chastised Russian inaction on Syria, saying the country’s refusal to take decisive action against President Bashar al-Assad threatened to precipitate the very civil war that Russian diplomats have said they wanted to avoid.

— President Obama will announce today an executive action aimed at helping veterans find jobs. “As thousands of our servicemen and women return from the end of the war in Iraq and the start of a responsible drawdown in Afghanistan, now more than ever we must fulfill our duty to them,” the White House said in a statement.